This invention relates to an angiostomy apparatus and an angiostomy method.
Conventional angiostomy operations are performed by suturing blood vessels using a needle and a thread. In addition, in light of the fact that a considerable skill is required to suture blood vessels in this way, automatic angiostomy apparatuses have come to be used for performing the angiostomy operations. Since, however, a mechanical structure for suturing thick blood vessels such as coronary arteries is hard to realize, angiostomy operations using energy are now proposed.
For example, there is a method for suturing fine blood vessels by radiating a laser beam. In this method, though, it is very difficult to bring the intimae of ends of blood vessels into tight contact with each other, and to reliably apply a laser beam onto the contact portion. Therefore, a method for accurately fixing the blood vessels and the laser beam is necessary.
Ultrasonic energy is considered another kind of suitable energy. An ultrasonic knife is considered a ultrasonic energy applied device in the medical field, in which a treatment for incising, excising or coagulating a caught organic tissue is made using ultrasonic energy. In the other industrial fields, ultrasonic energy is applied to an ultrasonic bonding apparatus or a plastic welder.
As described above, ultrasonic energy has been used in the medical field, but application of the energy to angiostomy operations has not been considered, and nor has a method for realizing the application been proposed.